Omicron, WHO: “Peak in some countries, but the end is far away”

In some countries the peak of the Omicron variant has been reached, but “no country is out of danger yet” and it is not the time to “give up and wave the white flag”. This was stated by the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stating that the pandemic is “nowhere near the end”. And warned of the risk they can other variants emerge.

“Omicron continues to rage around the world, last week there were 18 million cases – he added in a press briefing – the number of deaths remains stable for the moment, but we are concerned about the impact that Omicron is having on already exhausted medical personnel and on overloaded health systems “.

“In some countries the peak has been reached – he said – which gives hope that the worst of this latest wave has passed, but no country is out of danger. I am particularly concerned about the fact that many countries have rates of low vaccination, with people being much more at risk of serious illness. ”

“Let’s not get confused: Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths and even less severe cases are clogging health systems. “” Omicron may be less severe on average, but the narrative that it is a milder disease is misleading, harms the general response, and costs more lives“.

“The virus is circulating too intensively with many still vulnerable – he said – for many countries the next few weeks will be truly crucial for health care workers and systems. I ask everyone to do their best to reduce the risk of infection so that you can help ease the pressure on systems. “

At the same time he insisted on the need to do more for vaccination globally: “Faced with Omicron, it is increasingly important to vaccinate the unvaccinated – concludes Tedros – vaccines may be less effective in preventing Omicron infection and transmission than to the other variants, but they are still exceptionally good for avoiding serious illness and death. ”